NB: This episode no longer exists in the archives, nor is there a full set of telesnaps. Representative images are therefore used to illustrate it.
Synopsis:
The TARDIS materialises in ancient Egypt, in the middle of the building works for the Great Pyramid at Giza.
The Dalek time machine is about to arrive close behind it. Mavic Chen is informed that he must get the Core back or die, and counters that his human guile will succeed where Dalek force has failed. He is puzzled as to why the TARDIS hasn't moved off again - believing that the Doctor must have instruments which could alert him as to their presence.
The reason for the TARDIS remaining where it sits is that the Doctor needs time to carry out a more comprehensive repair to the lock mechanism, damaged on the planet Tigus by the Monk. Expecting him to have followed them, Steven and Sara go off exploring and to report back when they observe his TARDIS' arrival.
They see a vessel materialise - unaware that it is actually the Dalek ship. They also fail to notice that they have been seen by a man named Tuthmos - one of the works overseers. He reports what he has seen to architect Khepren and to Hyksos, the local military commander.
On seeing Chen and the Daleks emerge from their ship, Steven and Sara hurry to warn the Doctor - only to be captured by Hyksos and his soldiers. The pursuing Daleks exterminate several of Hyksos' men.
He decides to go for reinforcements, leaving the captives in hands of Tuthmos and Khepren.
His repairs completed, the Doctor sets off to find his companions and witnesses the arrival of the Monk's TARDIS, which takes on the form of a large stone block.
He realises with a shock that if this is the Monk's arrival, then what Steven and Sara saw earlier must have been a Dalek ship.
The Monk stumbles into the path of Chen and the Daleks. On learning that he is another time-traveller who claims to be a sworn enemy of the Doctor, he is ordered to seek him out and obtain the Core.
Meanwhile, Tuthmos and his men have moved the TARDIS into the central tomb chamber of the pyramid, believing it to be part of Pharoah's treasure.
The Doctor breaks into the Monk's ship and alters its external appearance to resemble a Police Public Call Box. He emerges, pocketing the Monk's directional control unit.
Sara succeeds in freeing her bonds and releases Steven. They overpower their guards and escape.
The Monk traces the Doctor's TARDIS to the tomb chamber - hoping to use it to flee should he fail to get the Core from him. The Doctor appears and confronts him...
Steven and Sara soon arrive in the chamber in search of the Doctor and find the TARDIS.
Sara watches in terror as a sarcophagus lid slowly opens and a bandaged figure begins to emerge...
Next episode: Escape Switch
Written by: Dennis Spooner
Recorded: Friday 17th December 1965 - Television Centre Studio TC3
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 8th January 1966
Ratings: 9.2 million / AI 52
Designer: Barry Newbery
Director: Douglas Camfield
Additional cast: Walter Randall (Hyksos), Derek Ware (Tuthmos), Jeffrey Isaac (Khepren).
A visit by the Daleks to ancient Egypt at the time of the building of the Great Pyramid was originally intended for inclusion in The Chase.
Revisited for this story, the initial plan was that the Egyptian soldiers would defeat the Dalek force, and a pyramid would be built to commemorate the victory. A lone Dalek survivor would make it back to Kembel (then called "Varga") with the Core. One plan had been that the Great Pyramid was actually built around a Dalek - and the ghost of this plot point features in the next episode as we see Egyptians start placing stones around a trapped Dalek.
The Monk, due to debut in this instalment, was left stranded in ancient Egypt at the conclusion as the Doctor had stolen a component from his TARDIS.
The draft script carried the working title of "Land of the Pharaohs".
Khepren was named after Chephren, builder of the second pyramid at Giza. Hyksos was originally named Cerinus. The Hyksos were an ancient Egyptian tribe. Tuthmos was named after Tuthmosis, name of four Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty.
Dennis Spooner asked for the pyramid to be the conventional type familiar to viewers, as opposed to the older stepped variety such as can be seen at Saqqara. The designer opted to base his model on the pyramid complex at Giza, near Cairo.
The three main buildings there are the Great Pyramid, and those of Khafre and Menkaure, and date to the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom (2500 - 2600 BC). The Great Pyramid was constructed for the Pharaoh Khufu.
Sara wanted to ambush the Daleks and demonstrated her karate skills against the Egyptians, whilst the Monk explained his lifestyle as simply being a wanderer who would lend his abilities to anyone who asked for them - irrespective of their motives. He mentions being open to helping dictators and tyrants, Presidents or Daleks, so is much more of an amoral character. He cares nothing of consequences as he will always move on to the next situation.
It's a much more cynical version of the Monk from the apparently bumbling, comedic one we are familiar with.
His TARDIS was to be seen to change into a Greek column, a "Wild West" stagecoach, a creepy-looking tree, an igloo, a space rocket, a sarcophagus, a small six-seater aeroplane, and a "Martian" or "Xeros space museum" building before settling on a Police Box.
The building is a reference to The Space Museum, previously script-edited by Spooner.
Filming took place at Ealing between Monday 4th and Wednesday 6th October. The fights between Daleks and Egyptians took place over the first two days, with Barry Newbery's impressive pyramid complex model (pictured below) being filmed on the final day.
Camfield and his assistant, Viktors Ritelis, were unhappy with the extras sent to play the Egyptian soldiers as they lacked the necessary weapon and fighting skills he wanted. They also thought them half-hearted in the action scenes. As such, only a few shots were retained for editing into the completed episode.
There were delays setting up Newbery's 12-foot square model, and Shawcraft announced that they were now so busy that they should not be called upon exclusively to service the show's VFX. Work ought to be shared with other contractors.
Also on the Wednesday, scale models were filmed of the Monk's TARDIS changes - which now included a motorbike, a "Prairie Schooner" covered wagon, ceremonial state coach and WWII tank.
During the afternoon of camera rehearsals on Friday 17th December, the studio was visited by Sam Rolfe - creator and producer of MGM "spy-fi" series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. On holiday in London with his family he had seen an earlier instalment of this serial and thought that the Daleks might be marketable to US television - something he shared with their creator.
He was photographed with his children on the "Dardis" control room set, an image of which later illustrated an article about Rolfe and his series in Radio Times, published in February 1966. (The image above is, I believe, one of those colourised by Clayton Hickman).
William Hartnell, who had recently announced to journalists that he was contemplating leaving the series, now qualified his remarks to suggest that he would go in another two and half years, as he hoped that the series would run for five years, by which time it would hopefully be made in colour.
With three different time machines in this episode, all seven recording breaks were mainly employed to move the various props around.
The episode opened on a shot of the pyramids model, and closed on a close-up of a bandaged hand emerging from the sarcophagus.
It is clear from the audio which exists for this episode that Hartnell was getting over an illness when it was recorded, as he sounds as though he is losing his voice at times.
- The ratings dip slightly - by just under half a million - but the appreciation figure rises to over 50 once more.
- Walter Randall makes his third appearance in the programme, the first being as Tonila in The Aztecs. A friend of Camfield's, the director had previously cast him in the significant role of El Akir in The Crusade. He will use him again in The Invasion and Inferno.
- Derek Ware was one of the very first actors to be filmed for Doctor Who, having arranged at Ealing the climactic fight between Kal and Za - and featured as stunt double - in An Unearthly Child. He had appeared on screen a number of times, including speaking roles such as the bus conductor in The Chase, as well as acting as fight arranger.
- Amongst the Egyptian soldiers is David Anderson, another fight arranger and actor on the series (e.g. Captain of the Guards in The Aztecs).
- Another soldier is Barry Noble, who would go on to have a reasonably successful singing career in the later 1960's. He made a number of appearances in the series as a background artist, including playing a Cyberman in The Moonbase and a Chameleon in The Faceless Ones.
- This was the third of three episodes of the story in which future director Michael E Briant stepped in to act as Production Assistant.
- The programme had small photo features yet again in Radio Times, with images of Jean Marsh and Hartnell:
- The 3rd February 1966 Radio Times piece on Sam Rolfe:
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